Align the systems
For Burkett, the first step to driving change is to assess your
infrastructure.
“Are you aligned in business practices and policies to support a
one-company environment?” he says.
You and your management team have to look at everything from
employees’ incentive plans to budgeting strategies to expenditure
approvals. If policies support individual departments or segments,
then modify or rebuild them. For example, if one part of the business needs help from another, are there barriers to sharing
resources?
“It seems like it’s always easier to identify what the right
answer is — you have to get this product out. The three best
resources to do this [quality assurance] testing are over here.
Let’s go get them and get it done,” Burkett says. “That part’s typically easy, but what you end up having to seek out is what are all
the things that make that reaction difficult? Nine times out of 10,
it’s internal stuff that we’ve put in place ourself to make that difficult, and those are the kinds of practices and policies you have
to challenge.”
Once you’ve identified problems, then prioritize what to attack
first.
“When you get into prioritization, look for those things that are
most important to act like a common company,” Burkett says.
Then start working through them, but you can’t do it by yourself.
“If you want people to come together from different places, then
you have to have representation,” he says.
For example, Burkett asked representatives from each of the
companies that constitute Ventyx to work together. For example, when it came to establishing an office dress code, with five different ideas of what a dress code should be, he told the representatives to go lock themselves in a room, talk it out and come back to
him with a recommendation that would be best for the whole company.
Also, remember that different policies require different amounts
of time, depending on importance and complexity — something
like harmonizing health benefits might take six months, where the
dress code may take a day or two. Sometimes the group may not
reach a consensus, so be prepared to step in.
“That’s a process we’re going through with every policy —
where we have gaps, trying to get decisions and some semblance of consensus made, and if not, somebody has to make
that call, and I’m prepared to do that,” Burkett says. “Even if
we can’t get consensus, before I make that call, I can certainly,
at least, report that a lot of people understand how difficult the
issue is and why a decision had to be made.”